19
"Is that all of them?" Tokoyami asked Lord Explosion Murder (his rejected name).
The villains were drawing close to winning.
"DEKU! I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!" He shouted into a treeline. Somehow, the once quirkless nerd was successfully hiding, and it was pissing him off.
He'd lied to him; Bakugo was convinced that he had all these years since they were little. He'd probably had a quirk the whole time! Just wasn't using it! He was so mad and ready to blow him to smithereens once he got a taste of that green hair.
Tokoyami seen movement but it was too much to be only one person.
'That's right.' Uravity and Shoto were still out here somewhere too. "There!" He quickly said, bringing out his Dark Shadow.
They began to approach the movement cautiously.
It was... 'Wait.' The bird paused. "Eraserhead?" Tokoyami then stood up straight, and Dark Shadow went back inside his body.
"Hah?" Bakugo put the palm he had up to fire an explosion to his side.
So it was just one person, just a larger person.
Aiwaza walked right up to them.
'What's he doin'?' Mic looked down on Eraserhead from above; he was a small, the size of a tin soldier.
He would never walk out there without a reason, to step into their exercise... unless the drill called for it, if it was to train them in some sort of way. But this exercise was not meant for professors to be involved, Eraserhead was to sit by and let them figure it out for themselves.
That was the whole key to strategy training: Let them come up with something, watch them perform it, then comment on what they could have done better next time and what they did well... in class. Not right now. The exercise wasn't even completed, neither side had a winner yet.
He put his hands behind his head and tightened his blonde bun, and then, pulling up on the long sleeved tee he was wearing to expose his forearms, Present Mic just gawked. Surely, he was out there for some reason or another.
Aiwaza was slightly unpredictable in some cases, as that was what his quirk called for.
The remaining 1-B and 2-B students were still just adamantly viewing everything, some watching the screens, some staring down alongside Mic at the glass.
They all were listening, some were munching on snacks, some had notebooks taking notes, either way, everyone could hear everything much more clearly now that the explosions had stopped.
"What's goin' on?" Tokoyami crossed him arms, his normal posture on his lean body. "Is it over?"
Uraraka suddenly appeared up out of nowhere. "Yeh! IS IT!?" She yelled, hands over her mouth to make her sound travel. Her head popped up like a rabbit behind some boulders, and she instantly began climbing down an embankment.
Some of the other Hero Class that were watching the remainder of 'Heroes vs. Villains' inside a shelter on that side of the field began filtering out: Iida was first out of the dugout followed by Momo, Pinky and Red Riot.
Bakugo's eyes widened. Float Chick was so much closer than they'd thought! Pretty decently strong too, he gave her that; he'd faced her in the tournament. She wasn't that creative, but she packed a bit of a punch.
"Hey." Krishima turned his head to the side upon approach. "Aiwaza Sensei, what's up with your neck?" He pointed.
Aiwaza's posture was slack, just blankly staring, slowly blinking, not looking at anyone, dark eyes set to the horizon above all their heads, his chin just as scruffy as ever.
Mina stopped and stared too. "Yeh. It's red. Are you okay Sensei?"
Uraraka paired up with her, boots covered in mud, latching arms girlishly and beamed at him. What the heck was that? "Did one of our quirks get'cha? Sorry about that!"
Silence.
Was that why he wasn't saying anything?
Was he so disappointed or possibly upset (even though they could never tell if Aiwaza, with his bland demeanor, ever was truly upset) that he'd gotten hit that he wasn't doing anything?
Would they get a massive amount of homework for this later?
Deku emerged with Shoto finally. They'd paired off together. But when the explosions stopped and suddenly there was a lull of quiet, they got curious and catiously poking their heads up, realized that their professor was out on the field.
Possibly signaling an end of day they both thought. But they hadn't even had a winning side yet. It still wasn't over! Three heroes were left against two villains! They could win this!
Bakugo grumbled. "DEKU! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Hero Class all sort of sighed, even Shoto, who was one of the more unenthused ones.
Typical Bakugo.
Midoriya just looked at him and wandered away. It didn't effect him anymore like it used to. It used to get under his collar and frighten him, telling him to get out of the way, not to sit aside him, not to stand close. Now he handled it by just being quiet and strolling off somewhere else.
Deku walked up to Eraserhead then. "Aiwaza Sensei. What is it?" He had an innate ability to understand when something was off. He'd studied people for years, was a people watcher. Sensei not talking, was not a good sign. He was probably displeased about something.
Upstairs the 2-B girl, Ai, started talking to her friend and Mic was listening as they were close. "Uravity looks kind of worried, don't cha think?"
"Do you know her?" Another 2-B commented.
"She's friends with Mina. I don't really talk to them, but I see them around together in the dorm a lot."
"Oh yea?"
"Yea. Mina's on my floor. Uraraka is always so joyous and smiley. It's weird to see her with a strange frown on her face."
Strange frown.
That repeated in Mic's head a few times. She was right. Uravity was always in a good mood. Even when she was upset or sad, somehow the girl always pulled through, and always turned it around.
He knew that because Aiwaza talked about them a lot. For as deathly as he looked and unimpressed, he was really into his class. He loved those little shits, but would never admit that. Eraserhead had told him once if he'd never ended up being a decent hero, that he thought he would of become a high school teacher. Even though the teens drove him up a wall, he liked that age group, it reminded him of himself when he was that age.
Mic thought it was good that both sides of his wants in life were being fulfilled. Funny how that was what he was doing now: A hero professor.
His head went back to the two girls in his homeroom class.
"What'are they talkin' about?"
"I don't know." Ai said back to her shrugging.
He looked to the view screen and sure enough, what was being said wasn't making any sense.
"Sensei! Wha? Are you disappointed!?" That was Ashido. Her face looked blushed over, hands over her mouth.
Scarves shot out and swarmed, wrapping around Hero Deku's neck, so tight it began to choke him. Deku's hands went up around his throat to claw at the scarf. "Sen.. uh." He coughed, falling down to his knees on the ground, face instantly missing color, lips purple from sudden loss of air.
Hero Class on the field gasped.
Red Riot and Todoroki lurched forward.
"SENSEI!" Kirishima yelled. Midoriya was his roommate and his friend! Exactly how pissed was he?!
Uraraka lunged too and grasped her hands around Aiwaza's forearm tugging. "WHAT?! WHAT'S WRONG! LET HIM GO!"
A shriek from one of the 2-B girls.
Ai stood amongst them. "Professor Yamada! What's wrong with your friend?!"
"I…" Mic bubbled. "EVERYONE!" He yelled to get them all to listen.
Almost all the B's sat down immediately; some almost fell over from the loud noise.
"Stay here. Don't move!"
"But!" "Wha!" Some of their mouths popped.
Ibara was immediately frightened.
He bustled to the small side elevator, popped the button, and as the door was opening he yelled out. "I mean it! Don't move! Ai! You heard me!" He pointed.
Ai crossed her arms and slammed her butt back down into a seat, pouty.
The B Class' heads were spinning. Was Aiwaza this way a lot?! Surely not! But if he was, it'd suck to be in Hero Class! Was Aiwaza that off-the-chain?!
Obviously they had no idea the hell to think; the whole lot of them.
The door was almost closed. "Ibara! You're in charge!"
The vine-headed girl turned around on heel at that. "OKAY! Everyone just sit tight! Let Yamada Sensei handle this!" She had to be the leader, it was her given role. As concerned as she may be about her friends and Iida down there, she had to have faith that Mic would get this settled and that everyone would be fine...
Especially her friends. Her friends, they had to be okay. Had to be.
She looked up, her stomach in knots to the viewscreen, poor Midoriya!
Mic fumed with confusion the inside elevator. Something was off, strangely off. Aiwaza would never act this way... unless something had happened! The Hero Class was going on about a strange mark on his neck too.
Mic felt trouble was brewing, and trouble in this world was never a good thing.
This was the exact dome the League of Villains infiltrated last year. They'd worked with the dean to tighten security, and there was an anti-quirk field around the school now, but he wouldn't put it past the LOA to find some way in again, somehow, to get to All Might, or for some other reason!
What did they think!? That by taking down that pinnacle of brawn and strength, All Might, that that would completely stop and bring Japan's Hero Associations to a dead halt? If anything, All Might's death (if that was even possible), would trigger the heroes even more so to seek out and destroy them all, and Mic knew also if that were to happen... Aiwaza would lose it.
Mic and him were friends, but he knew there was something that All Might and Eraserhead shared that was incomparable to their friendship. He didn't know what it was, nor did he feel the need to ask, but whatever it was, it held them bonded together in a strong heroic partnership that was resolute. (For Eraserhead was one of the trusted few now, that knew of All Might's true form, and the secret to One For All. He'd been told, unlike Yamada.)
The elevator clunked to a stop and the door opened.
Immediately what Mic saw was insane.
The fighting!
He immediately started running.
The Hero Students were screaming, Deku had gotten loose somehow, and they were all gathering around and ganging up on Aiwaza trying to hold him down in the dim field area, but the scarf kept coming out, wrapping, tightening, and Aiwaza would erase one's quirk, blink, then erase another, and since none of them had no idea which one it was that he'd randomly erase, they were struggling.
The way Aiwaza was fighting was not normal. He had the power to take away more than one person's quirk at a time, so doing it individually, singling one out, then another, it was like he was just toying with them.
Kicks and punches from Red Riot, flashes of crimson hair everywhere. Deku had grasped onto one of Eraserhead's arms and was, with the other hand, latched onto a huge pole, just trying to keep the teacher in one spot.
Eraserhead was like a rabid animal, jerking and snapping, his hair wild and swinging all over the place.
"No! Don't ice him!" Uraraka shouted at Todoroki. "It's like freezer burn! It'll hurt him!"
"But he's hurting us." He blandly responded, but his hand lowered. He couldn't use his fire, that'd burn skin too, but in a different way.
Uraraka started moving rocks towards him to block him in then, a better means she figured than Todoroki, but then her quirk was erased.
Momo created sand and threw it in his eyes.
Aiwaza blinked but knocked down (with a sweeping kick) the rocks she'd piled up, then with a strong latching ankle lock, yanked and tripped Uraraka and she fell on the ground really hard with a scream, head slamming forcefully, right on her temple.
Bakugo at that, lunged and wrapped his arm around the professor's neck trying to choke him out then, and Red Riot hardened his hands around Aiwaza's free swinging forearm, then the hardening was erased and Aiwaza viciously shook him lose, wrapping the scarf around his neck and slamming him into the ground a few times, leaving him dazed, eyes shutting in sheer pain.
Eraserhead was strong, recklessly battling, which was unlike his normally tactile moves too, but none of them wanted to injure him! The teens had picked up that something was wrong and were just trying to contain him.
Present Mic was almost there.
"YAMADA SENSEI! HELP US!" Ashido wailed, noticing him first.
She'd had her quirk erased by her professor a few times already. Accidentally she sprayed Aiwaza with her acid and it melted off a piece of his tank top. And since her acid was really strong, she didn't want to burn him, so after that, she had stood back a bit just observing, trying to see if there was anywhere she could help, anywhere she could lunge in. He'd already almost hit her twice.
Iida wrapped his arms completely around Aiwaza's waist, helping Bakugo and Deku hold him down. Tokoyami and Shoto lunged in, neither using quirks, as it would probably get erased, and kept trying to kick Aiwaza's feet out from under him. Shoto got kicked in the head.
Aiwaza's body clawed, rocked, bucked.
Mic instantly began to wrap his arms around Aiwaza's metal-woven scarf, lacing it off of him. He had to de-weaponize him!
It began to curl up around his wrists like handcuffs as Aiwaza lurched his head around, and Mina seeing a chance to help, hauled over to help unweave it.
It was heavy as hell! It took two people to get it off of him!
It fell to the ground with a clunk, and Momo gathered it up and drug it far away with her to go over and check on the downed classmates.
"AIWAZA SHOTA!" Present Mic shouted right up close to his head. "What the fuck are you doin'?!" At this point, after witnessing this, he didn't care if his homeroom class heard him use profanity. He was downright pissed and shocked!
The Hero Class raised their eyebrows. Never had they heard one of the professors cuss like that! Also, to use Aiwaza's first name! But all in all, Present Mic was one of the more 'out there' ones, his hero costume was clad like a rockstar, even though that wasn't what he was wearing currently.
Tokoyami and Todoroki were finally successful, and Aiwaza fell to the ground with a slam. It took Shoto, Deku, Tokoyami, Bakugo, Iida, Mic and Ashido to hold him, and they still weren't doing a good job, they were struggling severely.
Red Riot and Uraraka laid off to the side, both hurt.
The body was vicious, trying to get lose, untamed, but no expression was on the professor's face.
Mic raised a high hand and smacked Eraserhead across the cheek. "Snap out of it!"
The smack was so loud across the cheek that it got everyone's attention. It left a huge red handprint that began to puff.
He remained crazed, like that hard jolt had done absolutely nothing.
(Upstairs in the upper viewing area, suddenly a large crackle came through the sound system and the intercoms went down. Some of the B's took in a breath at the sudden loud snap of electric sound from them, frightened, immediately all were in silence. They'd just been tampered with, shut off purposefully, at the exact right timing. Ai stood up from her seat again and yelled a loud 'BOOO!', and Ibara shushed her to sit.)
Ashido began to speak. "Look at his neck! Mic! Look!"
The head was crazed, neck rolling and whipping everywhere, but when Mic pulled the shoulder-length dark hair back, there it was: A huge oval indention on his neck, broken skin, red, but it was turning, bruising a green and purple shade.
Aiwaza's white teeth suddenly snapping and spit came out of his mouth, trying to bite off Mic's fingers.
Yamada yanked back, letting the hair fall back down against the trashing, like a shark out of water.
"Are those... teeth marks?!" Iida grunted out, struggling at his waist.
Todoroki looked up, eyes wide. They were! Ingenium was right!
"Shit. Yeh. Something bit him." Mic.
Suddenly a horrible terrible cackle was heard from somewhere inside the dome.
It surprised them and scared a few so bad that they almost let Eraserhead loose, but instantly their grip re-tightened and they were all grunted and sweating just the same trying to hold him down.
A form swung around on a rock then, like it had just come from somewhere, into a smooth sitting posture, it was so dim amongst the artificial darkness they couldn't see it well, but the way it sat indicated it was full of itself.
It started clapping amongst laughs. Forlorn. "What a depressing show. I missed it." It mocked sarcastically.
"A villain!" Mic suddenly stammered. "Shit!" He knew it! He knew it damn it!
Bakugo pricked his ears. That voice. Instant connection. 'NO!' His mind shouted. He had no idea what to do or what to say! Thousands of things began rising through his brain. What course of action should he take?! He was frozen just hanging onto his professor for dear life. Everything was happening too quick!
"My pet was not too fun to watch after all." It said, it slowly slid down from a rock, leaning, and a long weapon swirled up over it's shoulders to let it's wrists hang over, like it was a Chinese rice worker carrying bundles of product. It remained in complete darkness by the tree line.
A man, but that voice. A voice so deep, with a raspy unsettled tone, horrible; none of them had heard it before, except Katsuki. Fresh and new to rest of Hero Class this ugly timbre was.
"Wha'do you want!" Mic shouted.
They thought that by biting a person, that was how the villain controlled. They wouldn't let that happen to them!
The man didn't answer.
Kirishima started moving.
Mic noticed. "Red get over here! Hold him down!" Present Mic had opted to not using his quirk. Loud amped sound would not stop this person, especially if all it came down to was a bite.
Soon they'd switched places, and Iida was asking Red Riot if he was okay, he was still out of it but nodding 'yes'.
Deku amongst the struggles was looking at Momo attending to Uraraka, he wondered the same thing. His poor friend looked completely out of it too. Momo had made a fan and was cooling her off with it, and she had also created a rag and was using it to wipe a bit of blood off her forehead.
Mic stood, arms out wide like a religious figment facing the man. "Not any closer! I won't let you hurt anymore of them!" He pointed at the figure. He'd gotten it, just from the person's words: Aiwaza was being controlled, how it'd gotten ahold of him though was a whole separate story! Aiwaza was not an easy one to tackle, hold down, snag up, he was a main Hero brancher.
The menacing force shifted it's weight.
Mic instantly hunkered and he began hollered over at the students as low as possible. "Knock him out." He knew the form was both teasing them, but also sizing them up, each individually.
"What!?" Iida spurted. Knock their professor out?
"Just do it!" Mic hushedly began to say. "I need your help!"
Some of their mouths fell. Help! Mic needed help! They got it, as they were all incredibly tactile. They knew how Mic thought, as their sophomore year, he'd been their English teacher, so they'd come to know his love of poetic moments, especially the way he could say things with implied meaning.
And the implication this time was that they couldn't help him fight this guy, unless they knocked Aiwaza out cold. They couldn't do both! They didn't have enough of a population to take on two!
But where was everyone else?!
(The rest of Hero Class were waiting on the bus all the way across the parking lot, completely outside the building. Some had decided to stay behind to check out the end result of Heroes vs. Villains, but the other half of the class opted to 'peace out' because they were so beat from the exercise: Mineta, Kaminari and Hanta were in the back of the bus playing cards; Invisible girl was listening to music; Yuga still had a horrible stomach ache from his laser and was trying to rest, rolling around and sighing; Tsu and Denki were going on about their mutations and Yuga kept asking them to be quiet; Koji, Rikido and Mezo all were falling asleep, and Kyoka Jiro had her ear-jacks plugged into a hand-held game she was playing which made it like she had on surround sound gaming-headphones, she was the one that was the most tuned out.) None of them knew anything was happening.
Instantly, Bakugo tightened up on his arm around his professor's neck in a choke hold, and the body began to writh even more and yank around.
"Eraserhead. Stop." The villain said. It knew what they were attempting.
Sudden. Eraserhead's head lulled to the side, and he became complacent.
"What do'you want!?" Mic repeated, growling angrily.
The silhouette took whatever long weapon it had off it's shoulders, an end of it went into the ground, still leaning. "Tch." It spit out. "He's served as enough entertainment, payback." The black shadow motioned his head at Aiwaza.
It didn't want payback and a show as much as it wanted something else: An opportunity to make it's real intentions come to the surface, to light. That really, had been the plan the whole time. Sure, some physical payback for getting it's shell injured was due, but what was more important was something else...
All the students looked up... entertainment? Payback? Midoriya and Iida shared a confused look.
The figure caught them off guard as the teens let go of their professor gently, trying to make his form comfortable on the ground. "You're Shoto, Deku, Present Mic, Pinky, Ingenium, Creati, Uravity, Red Riot, and Tsukuyomi... right?" It rattled off names quick.
They didn't even have time to blink, only utter a few short words:
"Whu?" Tokoyami said.
"Huh?" Todoroki.
"Me...!?" Mina suddenly spurted kind of low.
"Wha!" Mic chipped out.
Iida gawked up suddenly, so did Kirishima.
All solid. Statues.
Now the Hero Class, and Professor Yamada were all completely idle, completely motionless.
Bakugo's head snapped behind him and back to the front to look around, frenzied.
"WHAT!?" He boomed. What happened! He passed a hand over Iida's eyes.
Nothing.
Surely not, but he seen those passive eyes under Iida's glasses, and immediately knew. They were empty, controlled. Bakugo knew who it was, or rather 'what' it was, as if the unmistakable voice hadn't coined it enough: Diasuta.
All he had to have was one taste of that voice up in that penthouse to remember it's timbre forever, something the other's had not heard.
'Oh shit.' He wanted to lunge forward and do something! He knew things that nobody else knew! He swore that stuff to secrecy with Hisashi! For his roommate's sake!
Or... was it for his sake?
Truly. He was selfish. He wanted to play the game some more. He needed to know.
But there before him was that lifelessness, hanging out in shadow, like a creature of the night, making it unable for the others to see clearly who it was, like a true villain.
It was not Kasaya.
"Uravity stand. All of you go sit in the shelter. When you get there close your eyes. Not you Eraserhead."
They all began to move and mindlessly, like zombies, walk the other direction.
(Upstairs the B's were beginning to think, since all the students and Professor Yamada were walking away to go sit in the shelter really calmly, and that Aiwaza and Bakugo were there alone standing around, that Professor Aiwaza must of had a beef with him personally, and for some reason, must of went ape over it. They had no other way of knowing anything, as there was no intercom sound. It was just eerie in that room with no noise, and they couldn't see the separate third person on the field as it's form was covered by a thick line of trees.)
Diasuta seen it through until all of them were gone.
He motioned for the two remaining to follow, to come into the blackness of dense shade surrounding him.
Bakugo hesitated, moving extremely slow, Aiwaza behind him. He had no other option over this! He had no doubt Diasuta would just say his name if he decided to bolt, and that would be it. He growled. But he wouldn't run damn it!
He knew the whole time that it could say names, knew that was how it 'did' it, how it controlled, but he didn't say anything out of Hisashi making him swear it to secrecy, and out of his own... need.
He knew then. His arrogance and self-centeredness was more important than his classmate's well-being. And what did that say about himself? Who was... Bakugo Katsuki? And what did that say about 'this'? This right now?
As soon as he approached the figure close enough, the form was a ghastly sight: There was blood all over his roommate's stomach, mouth, hands. Half clothed. There was a pink scar on his abdomen, fresh. The only other, was the semi-healed small scar on his shoulder from the sword battle with his brother.
Bakugo froze up. So, one of their quirks had gotten someone! But not Aiwaza like Float Girl had asked! It had gotten his roommate, Blue Bun, right in the side, and it injured him enough to awaken Diasuta! Why had it decided not to try to kill them then? What was it's intent? And also... the wound was miraculously healed?
'GODS!' His red eyes swarmed all over his roommate's body, eyes like a burning fire. He was disgusting! His nose upturned. Like drying off with that old flannel in the dorm from the night the pipe broke. His track suit was ripped to shit!
Somehow Bakugo felt once again, he didn't deserve to look this way.
He wanted... to fix it. This was not his roommate. He shivered.
His. Fix it?
This was something else, someone... else, and it controlled people, it healed. So, what Hisashi said, he was seeing the after effects. This 'healing' was a new step. Maybe it was one of those things Hisashi couldn't grasp an understanding of? But if Diasuta was doing the controlling, what did that mean? If the brain could control the quirk so well, and the conscious Kasaya could not?
Truly, and Katsuki knew now, Kasaya was in trouble, he was troubled.
The forefront of Katsuki's chess game... the whole board in the moment, all it's pieces were suddenly gone, wiped clean, and the playmat was completely flipped over, into a new realm. If he could just flip it back, then all those pieces would return! And they'd be right back to where they were: In thier dorm room; the quiet peace. Him maybe asking some more questions.
Katsuki flared, eyes wild suddenly. NO WAY would he let his roommate's horribly dispositioned brain ruin his path to victory!
Wait, wasn't this a part of it? Suki swallowed. 'Yeh.' It was.
They were still walking. The dome was huge, and Bakugo had nothing except his own thoughts to entertain himself, throwing him through loop after loop of personal questioning.
He either had to take it all or nothing.
There was no in-between in Blue Bun's portrait painting, this game of poker. He was either in it, or he was out of it, and he'd already put all his poker chips in, let his roommate upstairs inside his head!
Both sides of this board, he'd figure it out.
He was Bakugo Katsuki! #1! He'd pull his roommate's sorry ass back to the conscious and then he'd set him down! Drink a thousand drinks with him just to be able to reap that information!
'Why?' His mind questioned. He gulped, air lost in his throat watching that backside of strong lean muscle moving in front of him: bloody, a wreck, like a samurai that'd just stepped from war, hair in a low bun.
'Because.'
He. Kasaya... Was the most interesting person... that he'd ever met. He may seem bland to others, but... not to him.
"You." Kasaya's body pointed to Bakugo. "Come'on." It motioned with it's free hand, as Bakugo was lagging.
Bakugo instantly felt a moment of rage with this thing saying that so cooly. "SHUT UP!" Bakugo yelled back to it. "Just shut the fuck up."
Katsuki hadn't expected this. That the brain wanted to talk to him.
"And Aiwaza, you too. Hurry up."
Where the hell was it leading them?
"STOP INVOLVING ME!" Bakugo suddenly screamed, practically barking. He hated this! He hated it when someone drug him into shit!
It just put an uncannily large smile on Kasaya's face, and turned right back around walking.
God he wanted to blow this thing to peices!
But he couldn't... because it'd possibly kill Kasaya.
Somehow, and he didn't know how, but he was able to quickly release that feeling of 'hate' after Kasaya had dragged him into the penthouse situation, he hadn't even marked it on his list as something he would hate him for the rest of the year; he swore up and down that was because he wanted the room to stay the way it was.
But that had never happened before. He'd never dismissed something that irked him up... so easily.
Even as Diasuta was doing it, and Bakugo had screamed to set his limits, to let that stupid ass brain KNOW how he felt, he was still following, his feet were still moving.
If it wanted to talk, so be it. Again, he would not submit to failure. He was overly competitive, sometimes it put him in tight spots, but so had the tournament. Nothing new.
Bakugo kept watching behind him in the deep shade as Aiwaza was following behind, trailing. Katsuki felt like he was getting a police escort.
Finally they stopped at covered tree line area, against a side wall of the dome-plex. Aiwaza halted and stood in front of them, looming hollowly.
Aiwaza inside himself was so relieved that finally the fighting was over. Diasuta had whispered in his ear that he wanted him to fight every one of them, just to play around and keep them busy, and he would be back, and for that alone, the hero professor was thankful. He had no idea what this teen's body was capable of; he didn't want his kids suffering. And now, it was over. They'd all been hurt some, except for a few.
It could have been much worse.
But now, Aiwaza was prone on listening to the conversation that was going to happen between one of his students and the taken-over 1-B'er. It had brought him along too for some reason. It acted like it had business with the three of them.
"Be glad I decided not to control you." It slammed Kasaya's back up against a wall, crossed the arms, meaning to relax it seemed.
Bakugo crossed his arms and sat on a huge rock, half covered in moss, like a spoiled child on a tuffet. "Hn."
"You coming means something."
Bakugo did a panther look into those pitless orbs, gray like a stormy sea. It was a brain, he didn't doubt it was intelligent in it's assumptions. He did come. It did mean something. He'd never say it.
Aiwaza was keen inside himself. Eventhough it bit him (and did some other stuff, that he's never mention, cough cough) he was fully intent on finding this Satoko a way out of this, a path back to the light. He was a teen and he'd quietly asked for help, and Eraserhead had leaned down and asked him: How. Tell me.
That meant something to the hero professor.
He was once a lost person, afraid in his teens.
Frightened of accidentally erasing a quirk and not knowing how to undo it, because like Satoko, he used to have no control. He'd blink again, and it wouldn't go back, and like many who first get their quirks, he had a difficult time learning about it, and that meant a lot of study.
"You're the only one that he can stand being around."
"Hah!?" Bakugo has an instance of deja vu. Same. He can stand being around Blue Bun, but he was the only person. The quick spill of that was just so sudden.
"Because of that, that was a reason why I stopped last time..." It cleared the throat. "among other reasons."
Bakugo instantly knew what he meant. It was talking about the penthouse 'happenings'. When he'd slammed his hand in Kasaya's face and yelled at him to stop or he'd blow him up.
"What else?" Bakugo was curious. The other side of this board, how it operated was awfully tactical, it acted like it carried a purpose, but he had to find it out too... if he wanted inside Kasaya's head.
"Ah." It looked him up and down now.
Bakugo got a chill.
Clearly this WAS NOT Kasaya.
Diasuta looked at him through those eyes as if a random person on the sidewalk would. Up and down. Gross. Nasty.
"Because. I'm concerned with preservation. Poor Kasaya is concerned about protection. Equal, but sometimes opposite goals." His 'mother's' connotations deeply entwined in it's dark voice.
Poor Kasaya. It'd just said. 'Poor how?' Bakugo's mind wandered rashly, his face gave off the fact that he was boiling in rage underneath. Kasaya was not 'poor'! Why'd he feel the need to even defend his roommate in his mind! Stupid!
Bakugo spat out his mouth to the side in utter annoyance.
"I'm concerned about kinship." It squinted eyes. "Aiwaza gave Kasaya his number." It pulled it out of Kasaya's pocket and handed it to Bakugo.
Katsuki was reluctant to take it but did. He was pissed about it. Yet another fuckin' phone number being handed to him! He crushed it in his hand and crossed his arms.
'DAMN IT!' Aiwaza shouted inside himself. Now another brat had it! What the hell was to come of this?!
"I can hear everything... when he's not drunk. It's only muffled when he's tipsy." It poked Kasaya's head with the index finger. It was asserting that it had knowledge in the conscious side's comings and goings, expressing it's dominating but mainly dormant position. "I can't trust you." It then turned to Aiwaza. "But I do trust you a little more than that guy." It pointed at the professor.
'What the hell did I do?' Aiwaza thought inside himself. And drunk? 'The kid's drinking? It's that bad then.'
"But you see, Kasaya is more keen on you than I am. I want to be convinced I can trust you."
Bakugo smirked. This was so stupid that it was downright making his blood boil. "I'm selfish. Why would you trust that?" He snapped off, clearly trying to ward the brain off his back, telling him like it is.
"I don't, but Kasaya doesn't care."
Bakugo's mouth kind of fell. His roommate... didn't give a shit about how selfish he was? That was... he didn't know that. Everyone hated how selfish he was.
"Yes, I'm angry the shell got injured..." It got a bit melodramatic. "and I wanted to scuff everyone up a bit for it, but this was an able moment. I decided to take advantage. The bite mark was a well-placed diversionary tactic." He motioned to Aiwaza again, knowing he could hear. "If I led them to think that that was 'how' I controlled, then it would be a cakewalk to say their names."
Aiwaza got it. He controlled by saying the names. 'Ah. So, all that stuff was just a diversion.' The professor was thinking. A least, the bite was. But the other stuff? The kisses? Not a chance. It played around with him how it wanted for a bit, then it chomped down on his neck. Slick and smutty, it was, but very statistical. It had reasons behind a lot of the things it did he realized. Was it more 'manageable' than what it seemed to be?
It went on. "I don't get to speak a lot. I only come to the surface when the shell is injured, out of preservation instinct. Or... if I get called out, by someone specifically."
Katsuki grumbled. Shell. He was beginning to despise the way it referred to the body as a 'shell'. It was Kasaya's body damn it. It wasn't just a fuckin' shell! How it made him angry. "You want me to convince you? Then I need something asshole." Bakugo got demanding, audibly irritated. "Were you going to kill Hisashi?"
Instantly Aiwaza knew, Bakugo knew things about his roommate, about Satoko, and he wasn't sure how to feel about him withholding the information. There had to be more to it. Aiwaza knew with quirks and issues, there always was.
"Hn." It smirked. "I thought about it." It looked around like it was thinking. "But all in all, no. Hisashi has proved himself worthy, no need to destroy Kasaya more... after everything. I just poke and prod these days. Kasaya and Hisashi seem to think otherwise though. I can see why."
"And why is that?"
"Because of the past." It cleared his throat. "Because of her."
"Who?"
It looked to Aiwaza, ignoring his question for now. "Listen. Bakugo is in charge." He turned back to Bakugo. "Hisashi has no fuckin' clue what to do beyond what he's already done. He's at a glass ceiling. No offense to Aiwaza, but Kasaya won't tell him shit being so concerned about his protection. If he'll say shit to anyone, it might be you. It might not be. Who the fuck knows?"
"Then why don't you fuckwad?"
"It's not my place. I may hate a certain someone as much as Kasaya does, and I may be okay with admitting what happened, but Kasaya isn't."
"And why the fuck should I care asshole?"
Aiwaza inside himself felt like rolling his eyes. 'BAKUGO! Just shut up.'
"I don't know. Why would you?"
Bakugo huffed and looked away, knowing it was milling for something out of him. But he wouldn't give it.
"All I want, honest..." It held up two fingers in a peace symbol, which was ironically stupid for it's character. "is that Kasaya wakes the fuck up, rather than drowning out his sorrows with liquor; drowning me out. He needs to face the shit that's happened. I'm not that evil, but I can be, and I have been. I may be able to face it, but he can't. He can't hear my voice in the playback reels when he begins to wake up, so I have no way to speak to him. I can just send him images. No progress can be made without him owning up to what's happened."
"So, what about the court case?" Bakugo mumbled out.
It looked at Aiwaza.
Bakugo noticed that that remark got under it's skin. It didn't expect that he knew about that. Well, he did. And obviously the brain wasn't too easy-going about filling Eraserhead in on that either.
"I'm guessing Hisashi mentioned that." It decided to go ahead on. "You want to know one of the big problems with that?"
Katsuki spat again and looked away.
It smirked. It knew he wanted to know. "Kasaya has to do the recorded testimonial. The court case won't be solid without it. Not only is Hisashi scared to death about hearing all of it, raw and open like that, but both fear Kasaya going to prison, and Kasaya is scared for his safety once exposed."
Aiwaza's brain was swarming like bees. He knew something really, severely bad was going on now.
"I want those jackoffs in jail. So..." It pushed itself up off the wall. "you both know the circumstance." He turned to Bakugo. "Whatever you do with Kasaya, I don't care, but get him to own up. Push him around, yank it out. And you..." He turned to Aiwaza. "Stay out of it. You got a piece today, be lucky I let you hear it. If you truly want to help at all, then show your worth, but your not leading any of this."
"I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!" Bakugo was suddenly outrageous, standing, growling, pushing up on the grenades on his arms. He wanted to clock this guy. "How dare you randomly assign me a bullshit task!" Again, he hated it when people involved him!
"Oh?" It turned sharp. "I think you may not want to believe you give a damn... but somehow, you are beginning to like asking him questions aren't you?" It shot air out of it's nose. "I'm not stupid."
Bakugo's mouth fell.
It laughed.
It! Katsuki was appalled. Intuitive! Did it know his game?
"Well, I'll be off. I'll go somewhere on campus to clean up, unseen of course, and I'll leave our shell in the dorm." It gave a flaky smile. "Aiwaza." It did a quick strange blink.
Eraserhead suddenly moved on his own, and realizing he was able to do what he wanted, began strangely touching his body, looking at himself.
It laughed. "I let the control go. Relax." It's free hand motioned.
"I have questions!" The professor spit out.
"Talk to him." It pointed to Katuski. "He's in your hands." It turned sharp, walking away.
"WHAT!?" Bakugo boomed.
"We can't just let you go!" Aiwaza actually yelled. It was strange for Bakugo to hear it.
"You want to try and stop me? Either of you?" It laughed. "Even if you erase the quirk..." It turned to Aiwaza. "I'm still faster."
"The others..."
"Just tell them it's settled." He spoke over his backside, completely cutting the hero professor off. "They're released as well."
Aiwaza: "Hold it. I..."
It put a finger to his lips.
Bakugo's mouth fell. What. The. Fuck.
"Maybe I'll see you around." It winked into Aiwaza's dark eyes. "Or yet again..." Then it looked to Bakugo. "Maybe I won't."
Out of stark fear of the intent in that, Aiwaza shut up. Not wanting it out that the thing had practically made out with him.
They both, for their own reasons, let it walk out, just watching it exit.
"WHAT'RE WE GOIN' TO SAY TO PEOPLE YOU FUCKER!" Bakugo screamed.
"Lie!" It was gone.
"Don't give my number to anyone or I'll maul you." Aiwaza stated blandly, he was back to normal. "I expect a progress report every three days."
Bakugo snapped. "NO!"
"SHUT UP!" Aiwaza yelled.
Katsuki's eyes got huge, he settled but remained growling.
"You're the roommate. If there's villainous activity on campus, or something is going on, it needs to be resolved, snuffed out. I'm not into locking up a student and torturing him until he leaks out his entire life story. The kid's stuck in some shit he needs pulled out of, and some big stuff might go down with it. Satoko won't say anything to me. I actually agree with Diasuta." He looked away then thinking, then looked back to his student. "Plus, it put us on spot. There's a reason why it only brought us along; it only wanted us to know, maybe because we out of anyone are the most suited to correct this problem." He crossed his arms.
"It told you it's name?" Bakugo was actually kind of surprised.
"Yes. Tell me everything you know. Do you trust me or do you not, like Satoko and Diasuta?" This was a true test for Aiwaza. He'd always felt distant from Bakugo. He was the student that had no form of selflessness and blew the shit out of everything, went through life hard-headed and crazed. He wanted to get him into a hero league, but with his attitude, the possibilities of it... well they were rather crappy. He wouldn't tell him that though.
Professor Aiwaza, he had to know, did he trust him? This meant laying down a lot of things selflessly to work on a project together. A secret project. Aiwaza had no doubt it's blow up in their faces if they went public with this.
Bakugo swallowed. He... didn't... know.
It was Eraserhead, right? Was he going insane with this?
His thoughts were along the same lines as Aiwaza's, this project was going to force him to work with a professor, force him to 'get along'. And Diasuta had hit the nail on the head; it blandly had brought it up: but somehow, you are beginning to like asking him questions aren't you?
The game was his secret, and Diasuta with ease, dredged it up. It laughed as if it was implying something. What though, Bakugo didn't know.
"Fine." Bakugo mumbled. He would not lose.
Kasaya was his secret.
His.